This upcoming week will be the senior kindergarten and Grade 8 graduation. As part of the festivities, both organizational groups are creating multimedia presentations to play at the various ceremonies. Certain teachers involved with those classes have been asked to prepare short video messages directed to the students moving on to the newest stage of their educational careers.
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It's not easy crafting these inspirational, heartfelt snippets. How do you capture two years or ten years of moments in a minute? What do you say that is meaningful and not full of generic platitudes? Filming these clips yourself also leads to a host of different issues - shaky camera work, awkward faces, multiple takes when inevitable bloopers happen, incorrect angles, and more.
I was going to use the green screen to project some images behind me to supplement my message, but as I realized from my recent Grade 2-3 green screen lesson, I'm rusty on using DoInk and it took me several tries to recall that you have to put the background image in the bottom track so that it appears behind the speaker.
Both of these school events will be held in-person this year. Our school population still masks indoors and we hope that we'll continue to be cautious yet inclusive. It will be the first time ever that the kindergarteners will have assembled in a group larger than their own class together. For some of the virtual kindergarteners, it will be one of the first times they've been in the building for an extended period of time. (Some came for Photo Day and to pick up packages from their educator team.) It will be interesting to see how everyone acts and reacts. There will be many rehearsals and practice runs, at least for the Grade 8s. I've been impressed so far with how well everyone who chooses to use formal footwear can walk in heels.
Congratulations to all graduates, everywhere!
Diana, I commented on Doug's post about this one, but I also wanted to comment on yours. First off, I'm so taken by how much time, effort, and consideration you put into both graduations. This is a great reminder that we often see the finished product, but forget about all of the work that goes into that. At our school, we have a Grade 8 grad, and with a classroom down by the gym, I've seen a lot of the lead up, planning, and organizing for this graduation. There were 8:00 meetings at least once a week for over a month as part of the planning, with additional expectations past that. Many educators are putting in hours of extra time to really give kids a fantastic send-off, and from your post, we can all be reminded of this.
ReplyDeleteI bet your students loved the multi-media presentation that you helped create. This reminds me of a Grade 6 teacher at my last school. That school only went up to Grade 6, and so they used to do a Grade 6 celebration each year. She would collect slideshow pictures from over the years to put together for this special celebration slideshow. What an amazing presentation for kids and parents to watch and remember the fantastic times over the years! I do love this idea.
Yes, I started a Twitter discussion about kindergarten graduations/celebrations. There are all kinds of different feelings about these, and I shared some thoughts after listening to the VoicEd radio show. I've always been in schools where educators can determine what to do about K celebrations. From Doug's post and other conversations, I gather that's not always the case. I really hope that this discussion was not upsetting to you or all of the wonderful things that you (and others) helped do to celebrate the kids at your school. My sincerest apologies if I hurt your feelings or anyone else's. This was never my intention, and I feel absolutely terribly thinking that I might have upset you. I will say that the Twitter discussion helped me see what might be possible when it comes to K celebrations, and maybe, gave a few different ideas for another year.
Thanks for sharing so regularly and so openly! Wishing you all the best in the final days of school!
Aviva